Basilisk Games has released the third installment of its October creature features, showcasing one frightening denizen of the world of Eschalon: Book II. Each week the company will unveil a new creature, offering both concept artwork and a detailed description. The second creature showcased is the Sentinel Stalk, a dangerous plant used by mages and sorcerers to protect their lairs. The aggressive vegetation is capable of launching barbs at nearby creatures.

The Sentinel Stalk is normally a very rare plant, growing naturally in only the most remote regions of the Far West. It was first brought to Mistfell and surrounding provinces by mages who discovered the most useful nature of this plant: it relentlessly fires barbs at anyone or anything that comes near it. Mages and sorcerers frequently use these plants to guard their dwellings from intruders. Over time, Sentinel Stalks have become familiar vegetation around crypts, castles, and any other structure that needs vigilant protection. It is important that the cultivator of the Sentinel Stalk knows how to avoid becoming a victim of the barbs, which is achieved by the use of magickal spells that bind or paralyze the plant, invisibility, magickal shields or similar methods.

The evolutionary reason for the shooting barbs is not for defense, but rather for offense. Long roots, stretching for hundreds of feet from the stalk, absorb the nutrients that seep into the ground from the decomposing creatures that have fallen victim to the plant's barbs. Because of this feeding method, the Sentinel Stalk is known as the Corpse Root to indigenous people of Far West Eschalon.